Chapter 450 - The Aim Of Ranked Heroes

The fight in the central city involved a werewolf and a snake. On the other side, a burning figure of a masked woman and an Exoskeleton that had the powers to vanish and reappear occurred.

The appearance of these two fights created more chaos, and the army was deployed.

But Meryl and Irvana also acted according to the Unlocked guidelines when fighting in public.

Both were having a heated discussion and were spouting nonsense about the Lost Primordial and the Progenitor.

"I'll pay you back for what you did in Egypt!" Meryl shouted as she flew.

"This world belongs to the Lost Primordial! Get out of here!" Irvana answered as her winds exploded out.

On the other side, the fight didn't have any more declarations. Cliff only shouted once and focused on trying to kill Amir.

The massive serpent was somehow blown off from the clawed slashes being made.

Every swipe of the werewolf caused damage, and a wound of some sort would appear.

But in every clash, Cliff would appear and emerge out of the serpent as the wind blew him.

At each exit, Cliff would attack with his sword.

Despite his rage, Cliff had still attacked at once at the right moment. Sometimes Cliff's sword would hit, but Amir managed to evade most of the attacks.

The speed of Amir was just too fast that even though Cliff could predict and tell with his memory where Amir would move or evade, the slightest touch of his sword from the fur of the wolf resulted in a sure counter or evaded.

BANG!

The speed of Amir drastically increased, and he managed to deliver a backhand strike after doing a wide upward slash with his fangs.

"Impossible!" Cliff cursed as he barely blocked the attack and was sent flying down. The serpent

Lynd was watching from the sides and had moved to another building.

"Lynd! What's going on?! Why aren't you helping Cliff fight?!" A woman rushed to meet Lynd.

"Charm. I see that you are still here. I thought you were scheduled to leave ahead of Cliff."

"I thought something was fishy! Who is that? Why aren't you helping him fight?!" Charm demanded.

"That's an ally. An Overcomer."

"What? Then why is he fighting Cliff?!"

"Settling a score, training, making the enemies think that there really are two factions fighting here on Earth... There are several other reasons."

"He told me about this... how you guys have placed him in horrifying circumstances and made him struggle for it!"

"And look where he is now. He is among the Ranked Heroes. Frankly, his reaction is a lot better now. He did not cower and hesitate and fought Amir head-on. Well, considering that Cliff already fought Amir twice before."

BOOM!

Another explosion occurred. Near Cliff and Amir was another battle of great importance.

The combined power that the captains of the Basilisk Squadron used was employing wind and sound to create a triangular shield. Zidane, Counter, and Hank combined their mysterious Realm Somatotopy and used it to combine their expertise in Realm. As such, the three of them could wield the sound just like Cliff.

The son of Amir fought against the spear of sound and was even starting to leave terrifying holes that forced the three soldiers into a desperate situation.

"That boy of Amir... He's quite strong! A chip off the old block." Lynd watched as the battles grew chaotic.

Charm didn't know what to say as she turned to the screen. Civilian casualties from the fight would reach hundreds! It was only two weeks ago that she was slowly brought into the world of the Unlocked. The revelations shocked her. Her friend, Lara, was an alien? And now she found out that her boyfriend has been one of the most toyed and tortured.

BANG!

Cliff was blown back, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Oof. Wrong move, Cliff." Lynd sighed.

"This...! You...!"

"Relax, Charm. This isn't going to kill him. Amir knows Cliff's worth. This is one of the few opportunities to train and fight like this. The computer games we invented and the ones you are training on have proven effective in raising the agility and perception of the Unlocked. You can evade a bullet now, can you? I saw your videos. You even managed to best one of Git Godlike! But of course, despite how close it is to real-world physics, that video game is still far from the actual battle, especially for those as strong as Cliff. Protocols are in place for them to be saved. And I'm here to stop any other Presiders from interfering. And if you are still worried, Meryl is fighting. Me and Zeek planned to have her fight without an Exoskeleton. And look, she didn't even cower but fight. Do you know why?"

"...No."

"Because Ranked Heroes aim to be Overcomers. Unknown to Cliff, he is slowly developing that temperament. It may seem harsh and brutal, but this is our training. We all have to keep risking our lives to grow. You will have to do it soon. Cliff wants to make things easy for you, but once we improve the chances for the Inhuman drug, you will be taking it."

Charm trembled.

"That drug... Isn't it estimated to have a mortality rate of..."

"Charles is confident that he can bring it down to a medical mortality rate of forty percent. And so, it should allow more of our soldiers to take it."

"But... The death rate...! You have invested so much in your soldiers... Your willing to let them die?"

"That's why I said medical mortality rate. If we look at science and biology, many people should die. But even when we had a higher death rate, we were able to produce so many. Not one of Warfreakz and of the Covenant died from that. This is part of the way we build Overcomers. Every step has to be a step towards Overcoming terrors. The drug path is already is an easy path. And this is why we opt to do this. We have not yet been placed in a point where we will just give that drug to anyone to make them one of us."

"I..." Charm had suddenly forgotten about the battle outside and felt great fear.

"Cliff's insistence of having you and your family prematurely enter our ranks comes with great disadvantages. No doubt, in the clash outside, some of your relatives will die outside. Pioneers are now equipped with stronger techs, after all. Feel free to tell this to Lara, by the way. Tell her that the Progenitor will begin the process of building a Phallium Suit on you."

"I still... have a lot of questions about Lara. I... I don't know what to believe anymore."

"I'm sure you've been reviewing the files we sent you. But don't worry. Lara or Zeraphine genuinely treated you as a friend. You could say that she sees you like a pet dog or something. She loves you but won't trade her race for you."

"It's not just her! Cliff is outside fighting an Overcomer? The world is going to end? Beings far more powerful than those that appeared in Egypt are coming here? I can't believe all of those things!"

"You have to hurry up and believe. I mean, you saw it, the war in Egypt. The ship of a Presider that appeared the European Nations. But I don't blame you. I get it. I was once like that. Innocent and kind and somehow unable to move on to reality. To think that in less than a year, I would end up killing this many people that I have..." Lynd sighed.

"That's another issue! Beyond my doubts is my frustration! You guys have been doing all of this! You are the cause of why there is so much terror in this world! I heard what you hated and even fought Seeker. But now... this is so normal to you! What happened? I can't understand many things, but the one that bothers me the most is how unkind you and the Unlocked armies are to the world! What happened to the Lynd who tried to kill Seeker because he was so dissatisfied with how Seeker toyed with your life. How have you resolved all your complaints to be able to disregard the lives of others with such cold hearts? I have a lot of complaints about all your actions! The world is in great chaos. People are dying every day. I see people around the world suffer. You have the power, and yet you are not doing anything. And I understand it. I know that you have priorities. But... almost all aspect of life is changing, and I just wonder how you can ignore all of it! You fought Seeker and was so angry of all that, and now you act like this is so normal!"

"It is normal. At least, this is normal." Lynd smiled and moved to the computer.

"Let me try to explain how I resolved this moral dilemma."